Does Heaven Exist? Living Enlightenment Course at EnlightenNext London
Last night good friend and spiritual sister Lovena Venkatakistnen and myself conducted class 1 of our first EnlightenNext ‘Living Enlightenment’ course together. This class is really a fantastic overview of what Evolutionary Enlightenment is about. We introduced the concepts of Being and Becoming as the totality of all reality divided into the unmanifest and the manifest realms, and how Evolutionary Enlightenment has a bias towards the manifest dimension. Just focusing on this in an open and interested way can really can shift the ground underneath you, and make you stop to consider deeply who we are in much deeper way – and this type of focus and consideration is the environment we were building in the class together.
A very fascinating point came up in the middle of the class where we started to look at notions of heaven. For most of us who are post modern, educated, sophisticated and relatively well off individuals, this notion of believing in heaven, or a place in the future or when we die that will be our salvation or final resting place seems quite absurd or at least not relevant. Interestingly this was the sense in the room when we started. But what was revealed, as we looked further is that we each actually did hold this belief even if we weren’t very conscious of it. A lady brought her authentic experience of feeling trapped in own her body a lot of the time, with a sense of not really knowing the way forward, and just doing the best she could do…and as she was speaking about it everybody in the room could totally relate. It was revealed that our version of heaven isn’t a place with angels, but in a dearly and deeply heal belief of a time in the future where we wouldn’t feel so trapped, and where we wouldn’t experience confusion and unpleasant emotional and psychological states. This is OUR version of heaven. I think that this has provided some good food for contemplation, so that all of us in the class can look into this in ourselves during the week to deepen and enrich our understanding of this.
We ended up the evening discussing and looking into how the 14 billion year evolutionary process that we are a part of produced the experience of human cognition and consciousness as part and parcel of the process itself moving forward and complexifying. Andrew Cohen, in one of the teaching videos in the course, explains beautifully how we as human beings at the start of the 21st century are the very edge of the universe waking up to and realising itself. This, understandably, proved to be way too much for us all!!…And was a great point to end the class. I am very much looking forward to continuing next week with everybody!
Hi David
Yes, the enquiry into notions of heaven was very revealing, and although it was no surprise to find this belief in myself (as I have a religious upbringing), it was interesting to examine the various forms it can take, mythically and psychologically.
It has struck me since that a distinction worth making here is between the belief itself – in whatever form it takes – and the relationship that we have to it. So, the belief that ‘everything will be taken care of in some future time or place’ (ie heaven) can be used as an excuse to do nothing about it, or it can be used to inspire and motivate action in anticipation of this coming about.
For example, I have heard some Christians say that there is no point making any effort to improve the environment or society because when Jesus returns he will instigate a new heaven and a new Earth. So they do nothing. And on the other hand, I know other Christians who feel intensely implicated by this same ‘promise of perfection’ – to be responsible for helping bring it about, and work to make the improvements (culturally, morally, spiritually) now. In each case it is the same belief but a radically different relationship to it, leading to very different results.
Within an evolutionary framework you might say that the utopian impulse – the sense of believing in the possibility of and feeling a desire to literally create utopia – is the healthy relationship to that same conception of ‘a better future’, while the attitude that ‘the entire process is evolving anyway so why get too bothered’ is the unhealthy one.
In each case it seems that our relationship to the notion of heaven, not the belief itself, is what matters.
Hello, i have been boggling ever since class on the fact that I do have an idea of heaven
even though at first I totally denied it.
The desire to make improvements (culturally,morally, spiritually) as Andrew says, is completely right but the idea of heaven being some other place that takes us away from this world and our responsibilty to it is just escapism. I think to become enlightened would
increase ones need to face things and not avoid them.If theres going to be a better world then we have to make it with our thoughts and actions. So that grand idea made me reflect on the countless times during life when i havn’t.
I am hoping that its never too late to change ones perspective on life but reading the articles on the course has given me a sort of jolt into reality.
Actually thats quite exciting
Hi Guys – So great to see that you are really thinking about this deeply. Of course like Andrew said it totally makes sense for us to do all we can for the environment, human rights and the protection of basic rights and human dignity from whatever perspective we can muster – that is absolutely true! But with Evolutionary Enlightenment we are daring to peer beyond as the leading edge of consciousness into reality and our selves as the life process…its very specific in a certain way and also very far out, but can be a way for some of us to discover and create new potentials in consciousness together, that could have impacts we may not realise now. And yes Sue, its never too late to do this for sure! and it is very exciting.
Looking forward to the next class!
Following both the movements of enlightened aspirators and technological trends – a part of the universe manifest as a thought in this bodies brain considered the following.
Assuming it is possible and that we do enter soon enter a age of massively extended human life span and full immersion virtual reality We will be able to create any experience imaginable on demand and thus in effect create any heaven we could choose. If would then be realised that for best effect, it’d be worth not knowing you were in this heaven.
Is this perhaps where we already find ourselves?? Is the multi verse simply running simulations of itself to find out more about what it is?
This is a esoteric description of the work of nick bostrom who poses the simulation hypnosis. Worth a google search to find out more…..